Good morning and welcome to another SLD meet up. I hope everybody's doing phenomenal this morning here from Miami Wishing you all the best today We have a very special guest and we're gonna be flying all the way to Austria where we're gonna have the person that is responsible of making and bringing the wine and spirit Experience much more enjoyable. He's Maximilian Riddle and he's the CEO and owner of Riddle is the luxury wine glass maker They're based in Tyrol, Austria and they've been in the family business for two hundred and sixty five years This is the 11th generation and he's gonna be going over how to evolve the drinking experience through the glasses that he's making all right Hello, hello. Hello.
Good. Good. Thank you for having me. Of course my pleasure.
Thank you for joining us I love the background by the way beautiful wine glasses still empty. It's early in Miami. So we gotta wait until we get okay Okay, I promise I'll wait until I'll do lunch at least but no, thank you for joining us And I find that your story is so fascinating because this year you're turning 265 years of a family business that is revolutionizing the way that the wine and spirits are being enjoyed Yeah, I mean it is it doesn't come easy. It comes with a lot of effort obviously from generation to generation being in business where 11 generations Is quite some weight on my shoulders and obviously the previous generations, but we do it with passion You know for us our work is it's not fun But it's passion and we like to come to work and we love to stay creative and and obviously when you're the 11th generation you don't want to be the last one I need to pass it on to the next generation.
Well, you are evolving the brand for the modern drinker, right? Because everything is evolving and you're definitely taking what the concept has been for all this year to the modern drinker and using technology to really bring that experience, right? Well, of course we try to utilize every Way to stay and remain creative. We are obviously traditional so we produce still handmade But nowadays lots of machine production as well So we are ahead of the game and of course modern technology allows us to communicate with the world No, that's excellent and you said that yes, we have machines nowadays that can produce at a much higher scale But you still remain that concept of handmade you show it on the videos that brings that human tradition and I love it By the way, there was one thing that you mentioned that it was taking more people to do a wine glass than to assemble Abu Gati Yes, you know, I'm a current food.
Yes, good and I know you're in Miami and people just waking up Maybe since the early for Miami time in Austria. It's now in the afternoon It's 3 p.m. Here in Central Europe, but I'm also kind of was yes and I was once very close with the upper management of Audi who owns Bugatti and We were chit chatting because they're all wine lovers and I mentioned how many people it takes to produce one of these beautiful handmade glasses from Kushan In Austria and they said wow, that's actually more people than we need to assemble And again for those that are listening or watching I gotta say your glasses are definitely unique I mean not just the quality itself But also the way that you create them are so special and I get emotional when I look at how it's been produced because it's an art It is an art and the people are artists and that's how you have to treat your glass makers So obviously they have respect for their job and we have a lot of respect for our employees Handmade glass. Yeah, it takes about 20 people not only to assemble it to blow it to melted and to get it into the box And everybody is part of the family everybody plays a big role in this production process versus with the machine I mean we only produce 5% of our production is handmade.
Mm-hmm. The rest is a machine made in Bavaria in Germany Why in Bavaria why in Germany because there is the original source for the best raw materials? That we need to produce our glasses, which is court sense now which markets are you sending this to it? International international of course my father George Riddle was very adamant that we could not only live from local markets the heart of Europe We an Austrian based company with production Austria and in Germany and those are our core markets But the number one market worldwide is the United States I think that everybody nowadays needs to have one of your glasses at their home because the way that you bring that experience through drinking those wines In your glasses, it's unique And that's why I was saying that when you use technology to share your story to share the way that things are produced Whenever you're having that piece of glass and you're drinking you have the whole experience and I love that Absolutely.
First of all, of course these are beautiful glasses good and they make a fantastic sound when you clink those glasses But at the end it's a fine-tuned instrument for everybody who takes wine serious Pour your wine into the proper riddle glass and when you put your wine into a riddle glass It's high performance it starts with the puffer the experience of course and the enjoyment And when you then see the production process it adds to the value of this moment And so I know that it's all about luxury in your world And for me time is luxury good and I want to spend it at its best being surrounded by friends and family with a good glass of wine Where's the wine coming from? How is it being made? How did it travel? What about the production of the glass?
So there's so much to celebrate I use beautiful Instagram to communicate to you to communicate to the to the wine Friends out there to the family around wine and I've very few people get the chance to actually see how glass wine glasses that we are made So for me, this is the perfect opportunity to share this I really like the way that you're saying it because it really reflects the passion that is behind all the work And it shows off. So definitely why not to use technology to share that with the world And now when it comes to this last year, it's been a little bit rough So how have you been adapting the business to really thrive through? Well, uh, my business is built on on on on two pillars one is direct to consumer So like you myself who like to enjoy wine with friends at home But also on the restaurant and hotel side of the business So one of 50 percent of my business used to go directly to the trades the restaurants or talents to shows Two wineries, of course not to forget them to cruise ships florida. My am is all about cruise And we're working very close with celebrity cruises and many more and this has come to a complete stop Which is devastating when you are manufacturer.
I'm not only a brand. I'm not only a person a c o manager I'm also a producer a manufacturer and so obviously This is where we were very much surprised that first of all, of course the hotel restaurants out of the business globally Came to a halt came to complete stop By the same time the consumer started to spend more time at home. They realized like myself I only have three wine glasses. How is this possible?
But we are we are maybe six in a household Here and there are wine glass breaks. You have to replace it, but we all like to go out Not only in Miami everywhere. So very randomly did we think about drinking or enjoying a glass of wine at home And this reminded people you're at home. Maybe you have to refresh your your house your household and buy in some new wine glasses So actually my brand I was one of the very few lucky ones it grew during the first month of Of the pandemic Well, thank you for sharing all of that and I will say that it's not that you were one of the lucky ones I guess that whenever the how did you work the lucky you get and you've been doing a lot of work behind I can see it from all the post you post so much of social media people I get a little bit You know I'm comfortable with getting into social media and you've actually tried through use this technology to really put yourself in front of the audience I think that's also made a difference because you're a very positive person You really bring the passion of your business towards what you do and people can feel that now just Related to the topic.
I just wanted to ask you this before I forget because I know that shake matters a lot Right in the product that you do shape is everything Oh for those that are listening that might not be too familiar What's the difference, you know on each shape like why matters so much? So glass making is a it's an art, but it's a tradition that goes back 4,000 years good That's 2,000 years before Jesus Christ good and that is something which is uh, it's a material It's a very interesting material. Not everybody can become a glass maker because of the knowledge that over generation was passed on and My family was always making glass. They were always producing glass For different times required different products.
It started with perfume bottles goods because profound became trendy people wanted to smell good But they needed to store it and really came up with the idea store in the glass bottle And it was my grandfather so many many generations later who realized that we produced then vases bowls plates Uh, it was art the latabes So everything was about decorating your home your table and very little was there to talk about wine and spirits and cocktails But he had a passion for it and he surrounded himself with so many is he spoke the Italian language like the German language and the English language He spent a lot of time in Italy and the so many is became his friends and they said, you know, we know that you're making glass Why aren't you doing something for us? We need some instruments. We need some tools We need to enjoy wine and we believe that in a proper glass and then people spoke about pretty glasses Elegant glasses beautiful glasses glasses with color with decor. They were not thinking about the glass itself to assist the wine to shine good So this came over time.
This was my father George ville who met angelo guy, uh Robert Mondavi and many many famous wine makers with whom they he sat down and said I would like to taste your wine and why don't you try it in my glass versus the glasses that you're using in the wineries We're talking about the eighties and nineties so for people to drink from a big glass like our so many burgundy glass It was they were shocked. How can my wine shine in a big glass and I remember the New York Times Related to this bowl, which is by the way in the museum of modern art in New York on permanent exhibition the most beautiful wine glass They call it and the New York Times photographed this last with a goldfish inside they call it the fish bowl good So for people then to drink from a big glass was surreal. It did not make sense But as soon as people were connecting Melling swilling tasting people were blown away a good example is my favorite champagne Where together with don't perignon I was allowed to design a glass with them and for them for don't perignon and don't perignon rosé because they say rosé Actually suits better in a pinot noir glass rosé champagne good versus a flute the flute forget it's traditional It's great marketing because if you put a flute on the table people know you're drinking sparkling wine Right, so it's great marketing, but when you put your nose into a traditional flute every champagne has a little bit of an older Of a smell of breads, which is In wine when you have that it is a big part of it. So when you have bread in here, it's the yeast good So for me fruit comes first for the winemaker fruit comes first.
That's what grows in the vineyard is the fruit So my glasses are really designed to always show the fruit never secondary aromas first It's always primary aromas. So all of a sudden they said we cannot serve don't perignon by the glass in a big bowl like this good because it would look very little So they commissioned me and together with the two cello masters old and young I designed this glass for don't perignon And we get a lot of commission to work lately. So it's not only the real portfolio of the secret sauce. How do you say so energized and positive?
Well, you know, I'm a happy guy. I think it starts here. I think I call myself lucky To have a family that looks after me and I'm very proud about my family And I'm successful, you know and if you have this combination of luck love passion and success You should be able to move to move mountains and and we're trying to do this Thank you so much. Is there any takeaway or anything that you would like to share?
Well, there's lots. I mean first of all, I would like to thank you for this opportunity I would like to wave to all my friends out there and erase my glass to everybody's house Stay tuned. There will be much more coming from our site and don't forget every wine should be decanted There we go. Thank you so much.
I'm really appreciate everybody follow max Amelia. I really also read a lot of fish. I'll check out what they're doing It's a phenomenal work. I love your product and I can wait to see you here in Miami.
Appreciate it. Thank you so much And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it And remember embrace it beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time